Song of the Day – “Georgia Rhythm” – Atlanta Rhythm Section

From the 1976 album A Rock and Roll Alternative, here’s a song about life on the road. I get the feeling that it was played here in Atlanta far more than anywhere else, since it peaked at #68 on the Billboard charts.

Livin’ out of a suitcase
Sleepin’ in hotel rooms
Rental cars and airport bars
And dog day afternoons

Song of the Day – “Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your Mother” – The Mills Brothers

It’s Mothers Day in the US, and we are reaching back to the late thirties for a song by the Mills Brothers. They were the originators of vocalese (AFAIK) as evidenced by the instrumental/vocal break.

Don’t be afraid to tell your mother
Don’t be afraid that she’ll discover
That you and I have planned a little home

Song of the Day – “Get Ready” – The Temptations

This classic by the Temptations hit #29 on the charts in 1966, then #1 in 1970 in a version by Rare Earth. It was the last Smokey Robinson tune penned for the Temps, and it’s a good one.

And I’m bringing you a love that’s true
So get ready, so get ready
I’m gonna try to make you love me too
So get ready, so get ready ’cause here I come

Song of the Day – “Enough for Somebody” – Danny Wilkerson

Wilkerson has been a working musician for forty years. Much of that time has been with a Texas band called The Pengwins, who released a few singles and EPs. In 2018 he released his first solo album, Wilkerson, and it is brilliant.

For the first time in my life
I’m in love
Enough for somebody

Song of the Day – “Here to Love You” – The Doobie Brothers

This leadoff track from 1978’s Minute by Minute has one of the funkiest piano tracks Michael McDonald has ever laid down. Kudos!

Some men think they’re born to be king, now
Maybe that’s true, girl
But I think passing love along
Is all we were born to do

Song of the Day – “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” – Jeremy

Jeremy is a musician named Jeremy Morris. He’s done some solo work, and has a group called The Lemon Clocks.

He doesn’t take the Neil Diamond-penned Monkees song in any new direction. But there are several new sounds, and it works well.

Walk out
Girl, don’t you walk out
We’ve got things to say

Song of the Day – “My Brave Face” – Paul McCartney

Thirty-five years ago, Paul McCartney teamed up with Elvis Costello to write some songs. Some, like “Veronica”, ended up on Costello’s Spike while others, like this one, ended up on McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt.

I don’t think that this is a case of the results being greater of the sum of the parts. How could it be, given the greatness of the two?

The simplest things set me off again
And take me to that place

Where I can’t find my brave face

Song of the Day – “Melody Hill” – The Archies

Being a child in the sixties means I was the target audience for an entire genre of music – bubblegum. It’s unbelievably sunny and simple and optimistic, which is exactly what we’d like music for our children to be.

This was the B-side for the prototypical bubblegum song, “Sugar Sugar”.

While sun shines on the flowers
We’ll kiss away the hours
Listening to our happy little song

The K-Tel logo was necessary to cover an unfortunate hand placement.

Song of the Day – “Thanks for the Memory” – Stan Getz

This standard was written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, and soon became Bob Hope’s theme song. Of course it didn’t belong to Hope, so here we have a version by saxophone great Stan Getz.

Thanks for the memory
Of Schubert’s Serenade,
Little things of jade
And traffic jams
And anagrams
And bills we never paid,
How lovely it was.

Song of the Day – “It’s Over” – Electric Light Orchestra

Richard Tandy, keyboardist for ELO, passed away this week. He was an integral part of Jeff Lynne’s music – never more crucially than in this number from Out of the Blue. Listen to that piano at 2:57! RIP Mr. Tandy.

When you kick out the sea
And the sun says goodbye
There is nothing much to speak of